New book-opening
Just updated the revised opening for chapter 1 of Strategic Management Dynamics, which you can download from www.strategydynamics.com/smd-new-start. This includes an important correction to the explanation of free cash-flow on p.27 that was unfortunately introduced when the document was laid out – apologies.
Reminder – This document reviews through some well-known cases the current philosophy and some basic tools of business strategy to make the case for a continuous, holistic approach to strategic management, i.e. strategy dynamics.
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Corporate Portolio Management
Just been made aware of CPM – may be useful to strategic management. It seems to have come from the challenge of deciding and managing multiple, large-scale projects in sectors such as defence, IT and construction. Read more
The balanced scorecard
A large Management Development community I track has been discussing how we could have prepared people better for the current troubles, and some have advocated the Balanced Scorecard [BSC]. I have used BSC in strategy teaching for some years, and come across BSCs in many companies. My impression is that, whilst it is a valuable extension to standard financial reporting systems, it has some limitations as a tool for managing strategy – limitations that the down-turn has exposed quite sharply.
Strategy in health-care
I see Booz Allen organised a Diabetes Thought Leader Roundtable Discussion, bringing together diverse groups to discuss this major healthcare challenge. Strategy for such societal issues is especially challenging vs. corporate cases precisely because of the multiple actors and agencies involved. An integrated model of how these all interact is essential if effective, coordinated policy is to be achieved … Read more
Strategy in asset-heavy firms + model
the Economist says Mr Obama plans big spend to fix US infrastructure. Origins of problems that led to bridges collapsing, water mains bursting, and massive sewage leaks are easy to see – politicians can always put off long-term investment in favour of short-term give-aways. But CEOs face similar temptations. Read on for a detailed explanation of this topic and an exercise to try for yourself … Read more
What is strategy? … and the strategy life-cycle
Just working on the first chapter of the textbook 2nd edition, and thought it needed a bit more on this question – found the only way to explain to newbies was to go through an organization’s life and track what ’strategic management’ actually does over that time-horizon. Main messages are:
- The choice of strategic ‘position’ [what to provide, to whom and how, relative to rivals] is a very rare activity.
- Substantial strategic initiatives [acquisition, new market entry etc] occur occasionally.
- By far the majority of the task is steering [a.ka. implementing] the strategy from period to period.
So – how come the attention in all the textbooks and journals is in precisely the opposite priority? Read more